[3.5] Interesting defensive abilities

[Myou]

Hi all, I was looking at Mettle, which is an interesting ability, and I was wondering if there were any other interesting/effective/unusual defensive abilities that classes/templates/races can give. Defensive abilities tend to fall by the wayside, other than IotSFV.

Do you know any?

[Dimers]

Kensai can "withstand" -- replace Reflex saves with Concentration checks for AoE, and it explicitly works with evasion.

The elan race gets two immediate-action abilities that can avoid or reduce damage for a small power point cost. The one that raises their saves adds a racial bonus, which stacks with just about anything else they might reasonably have.

Spirit shaman effectively have a constant protection from spirits effect.

[Splendor]

I'll not mention any of the BoED feats or abilities.....

Elusive Target Feat negates power attack.

Melee Evasion Feat allows you to dodge one attack.

Superior Vision Feat grants lowlight vision or extends existing lowlight vision.

Fly, Swim speed, Climb speed.

Tremorsense.

Breathless: Don't need to breathe.

Skulk: Peerless Camouflage, Innate Nondetection, Trackless Path

Ghostwise Halfling have limited telepathy.

Dream Dwarf: Dream Sight (see Ethereal)

Dwarfs: Stonecutting. Nice for finding traps in dungeons.

Gnome, Wavecrest: Speak with seabirds. (nice on ocean adventures)

Whisper Gnomes: Silence on self.

Elans: Ones already listed, immortality, no need to eat or drink.

[Sinfire Titan]

Incarnates and Totemists get some defenses even the Big 6 have a hard time duplicating.

[CTLC]

hellfire warlocks get hellfire shield

[randomhero00]

Make a dude with Abrupt Jaunt called Mchammer.

("can't touch this...")

[Superglucose]

Hi all, I was looking at Mettle, which is an interesting ability, and I was wondering if there were any other interesting/effective/unusual defensive abilities that classes/templates/races can give. Defensive abilities tend to fall by the wayside, other than IotSFV.

Do you know any?
Wizard/Sorceror spells? Blink + Greater Mirror Image + Displacement + Prismatic Sphere + Ring of Counterspells (storing Disjunction and Greater Dispel) = "hmmm..."

[Fishy]

Swiftblade (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327) gets (Ex) Displacement, which is pretty huge.

[Starscream]

If abilities granted by items are allowed, I nominate Eric's Shield from the Animated Series Handbook.

5 times a day you can create a Resilient Sphere effect. Which seems lame, but you do it as an immediate action. That means that 5 times a day any time something bad happens to you (someone attacks you, casts a spell at you, a dragon breathes on you, rocks fall-everybody...) you can say "No". Pretty handy.

[PrismaticPIA]

Mongoose printed a fairly imbalanced book of feats a while back. Most notable was a short series of combat feats that allow you to COMPLETELY NEGATE DAMAGE and some status effects by taking a point of wisdom damage.

The Mountain Does Not Move.

The Mountain Does Not Fall.

[Grumman]

Mongoose printed a fairly imbalanced book of feats a while back. Most notable was a short series of combat feats that allow you to COMPLETELY NEGATE DAMAGE and some status effects by taking a point of wisdom damage.

The Mountain Does Not Move.

The Mountain Does Not Fall.
That would make my favourite tank build (Warforged Crusader 5 / Hellreaver 5 / Binder 1 / Crusader +9) even more hilarious. It's already got the ability to heal a point of ability damage every round, and heal all ability damage every three rounds. With those two feats, the enemy might as well not bother.

[Temotei]

Make a dude with Abrupt Jaunt called Mchammer.

("can't touch this...")

Dun-dun-du-dun, duh-dun, dun-duh.

[Runestar]

Psionic yuan-ti pureblood has detect hostile intent at-will.

[magic9mushroom]

Ghost has the best defensive ability EVER. Namely, you can automatically resurrect if you die.

[subject42]

Melee Evasion Feat allows you to dodge one attack.

What is the source for melee evasion?

[kentma57]

Well I had a lot of gun with a sand shapper who who took "Quicken Supernatural Ability(Sand Shaper)". (Book: sandstorm)

yeh... the ability to toss around 20+ cubic ft of sand/earth as a free action was fun. We calculated that if I needed to I could surround myself with a sphere of sand that took 200 damage to get through and that I could completely rebuild each round as a free action.

I though it was a cool defensive ability.

EDIT: by the way 1 cubic ft of sand ways about 100lb

[Swooper]

All the various counters from ToB. Crusader's delayed damage pool.

[Ormagoden]

The Knight Class capstone ability.

[magic9mushroom]

If we're mentioning items, Cube of Force. Creates a special one-way Wall of Force in a cube around you with adjustable settings as to what it keeps out. It isn't destroyed in one shot by anything other than Disjunction.

[Optimystik]

No mention of Iot7FV yet?

Honorable mention to Wings of Cover and Iron Heart Surge - both immensely powerful defensive tricks.

Dread Necro gets the Ghostly Visage familiar, which grants its owner permanent (Ex) Mind Blank.

[Adumbration]

Willing Deformity: Madness for immunity against mind-affecting, for the cost of two feats and -4 wisdom.

[magic9mushroom]

No mention of Iot7FV yet?

Honorable mention to Wings of Cover and Iron Heart Surge - both immensely powerful defensive tricks.

Dread Necro gets the Ghostly Visage familiar, which grants its owner permanent (Ex) Mind Blank.

Really, I don't see how Warding is better than a Cube of Force. It's awesome, that's for sure, but a Cube of Force is more awesome.

And IotSV was mentioned in the OP as something he already knew about.

[subject42]

No mention of Iot7FV yet?

He sneaks "No Iot7FV" in at the very end.

To continue with the trend of "awesome stuff that you can do with Sorcerers", the spell Ruin Delver's Fortune is a fun one, especially if you can cast it spontaneously.

[herrhauptmann]

Regalia of the Phoenix. If you have the full set, you get brought back in a storm of fire when you die. (1/day I think).

Swiftblade can also take his Haste spell into an AMF after level 7 ( I think). And then there's the fact that swiftblade 10 can cast time stop in a 6th level slot as a swift action. He can then cast it again in a 3rd level slot, and still keep a full round action with which to run away :) And he runs very fast when hasted, +20 to movement I believe.
Fleeing is a perfectly valid form of avoiding damage.

[Lysander]

Trapsense: barbarians, rogues

Phylactery respawning: Liches

Sleep immunity: Elves

Vampires don't automatically die at 0hp, they need something like sunlight, running water, a stake through the heart, or beheading them and filling their mouth with holy food/water to finish them off. Vampire Spawn with fast healing assume gaseous form at 0hp and can recover if they reach their coffin in 2hrs.

Pixies have Greater Invisibility at will.

[Abd al-Azrad]

Master Specialist (Abjurer) gets a combined Evasion/Mettle ability at 7th, allowing it to suffer no effects at all from any spell that it saves against.

Which is kind of embarrassing, considering mage types have typically abysmal Fort and Ref saves, and making a Will save will pretty often mean you suffer no effect anyway.

[Cieyrin]

Well I had a lot of gun with a sand shapper who who took "Quicken Supernatural Ability(Sand Shaper)". (Book: sandstorm)

yeh... the ability to toss around 20+ cubic ft of sand/earth as a free action was fun. We calculated that if I needed to I could surround myself with a sphere of sand that took 200 damage to get through and that I could completely rebuild each round as a free action.

I though it was a cool defensive ability.

EDIT: by the way 1 cubic ft of sand ways about 100lb

So you're Gaara? :smalltongue:


What is the source for melee evasion?

PHB2.

[Frosty]

Mongoose printed a fairly imbalanced book of feats a while back. Most notable was a short series of combat feats that allow you to COMPLETELY NEGATE DAMAGE and some status effects by taking a point of wisdom damage.

The Mountain Does Not Move.

The Mountain Does Not Fall.

To balance this, make them spend Void Points as well :smallbiggrin:

[Superglucose]

That would make my favourite tank build (Warforged Crusader 5 / Hellreaver 5 / Binder 1 / Crusader +9) even more hilarious. It's already got the ability to heal a point of ability damage every round, and heal all ability damage every three rounds. With those two feats, the enemy might as well not bother.
Yeah it pretty much stops non casters :smallwink:

[Glimbur]

Really, I don't see how Warding is better than a Cube of Force. It's awesome, that's for sure, but a Cube of Force is more awesome.

And IotSV was mentioned in the OP as something he already knew about.

It's about actions. It takes a standard action to put up the Cube, but the IotSV powers work as an immediate action.

[Runestar]

Melee evasion is overrated. 1d20+bab is unlikely to stop any attack (save the infrequent ranged attack from a wizard), though it can help boost your touch AC somewhat. Seems the only use is in the hands of npcs with abnormally high bab for their cr, such as dragons.

[kentma57]

So you're Gaara? :smalltongue:

Yes, yes I am. :smallcool:

[Sinfire Titan]

Yes, yes I am. :smallcool:

Sandshaper came before Naruto though...

[kentma57]

Sandshaper came before Naruto though...

I don't feel like checking if your right(I think the manga predates the Sandstorm book), but I did create this build after Gaara first made his appearance.

[herrhauptmann]

Sandshaper came before Naruto though...

Naruto was being published in America in 2003. So it had started in Japan even earlier. And the manga is up to chapter 480 in japan. 480 weekly chapters, at about 48-50 chapters a year (author takes time off here and there)

[magic9mushroom]

It's about actions. It takes a standard action to put up the Cube, but the IotSV powers work as an immediate action.

But a standard action and an immediate action are equivalent, due to Celerity. :smallwink:

[kentma57]

But a standard action and an immediate action are equivalent, due to Celerity. :smallwink:

No, bad wizard.

[Myou]

But a standard action and an immediate action are equivalent, due to Celerity. :smallwink:

Except Celerity costing a spell slot for each use and leaving you stunned afterwards (no reasonable DM will let you dodge that). Oh, and you have to be a caster.


Anyway, lots of interesting stuff, thanks, anyone know any others? :3

[Signmaker]

While a spell, I have to give a shoutout to Forceward. For a 4th level spell, it protects against [Force] attacks, hedges out incorporeals, and eats through Force walls. Not bad.

[magic9mushroom]

Except Celerity costing a spell slot for each use and leaving you stunned afterwards (no reasonable DM will let you dodge that). Oh, and you have to be a caster.


Anyway, lots of interesting stuff, thanks, anyone know any others? :3

Dazed, not stunned, and you still only actually lose your quickened spell. Worth it to put up the much better barrier that a Cube of Force gives.

[Ernir]

Vecna-blooded, template, MM5.

Grants immunity to Divination spells. Permanent, non-bypassable.

:smalleek:

[Myou]

Dazed, not stunned, and you still only actually lose your quickened spell. Worth it to put up the much better barrier that a Cube of Force gives.

You lose your next swift action, quickened spell or otherwise, but you also lose the ability to take an immediate action until after your next turn, and you lose a prepared spell for the day. Plus the cost of the item. And the daze (I always mix them up).

Where is this cube from? That anyone can really think it better than the IotSFV makes me curious.

[magic9mushroom]

You lose your next swift action, quickened spell or otherwise, but you also lose the ability to take an immediate action until after your next turn, and you lose a prepared spell for the day. Plus the cost of the item. And the daze (I always mix them up).

Celerity loses you 1 useful (ie, non-Move) action, because you get a standard action but lose a standard action and the immediate action you used to cast it. So really, you lose only the immediate action.

Cube of Force is definitely worth it.


Where is this cube from? That anyone can really think it better than the IotSFV makes me curious.

DMG, in the Wondrous Items section. Nothing special.

It projects a special Wall of Force that can keep out everything and takes multiple Disintegrates to bring down. The only thing I know of that beats it in one hit is Disjunction, and Disjunction beats everything anyway.

[Myou]

Celerity loses you 1 useful (ie, non-Move) action, because you get a standard action but lose a standard action and the immediate action you used to cast it. So really, you lose only the immediate action.

Cube of Force is definitely worth it.



DMG, in the Wondrous Items section. Nothing special.

It projects a special Wall of Force that can keep out everything and takes multiple Disintegrates to bring down. The only thing I know of that beats it in one hit is Disjunction, and Disjunction beats everything anyway.

I'm... confused. Spells can't pass through normal walls of force, and the text doen't say anything to change that. So you're basically just using the cube to defend while you buff yourself. And an optimised power attack build can beat it with a single atack - damage can disable it.

[magic9mushroom]

I'm... confused. Spells can't pass through normal walls of force, and the text doen't say anything to change that. So you're basically just using the cube to defend while you buff yourself. And an optimised power attack build can beat it with a single atack - damage can disable it.

It specifies what they do, and it only says "keeps out", so you should be able to cast out of it. Notably, it specifies that Disintegrate, Prismatic Spray, etc can't be cast out of it, strengthening the implication that other things can.

Yeah, there are indeed ways to beat it, but it's generally a frickin' awesome defense.

[Myou]

It specifies what they do, and it only says "keeps out", so you should be able to cast out of it. Notably, it specifies that Disintegrate, Prismatic Spray, etc can't be cast out of it, strengthening the implication that other things can.

Yeah, there are indeed ways to beat it, but it's generally a frickin' awesome defense.

It says that for all settings "These spells (given in the list below) cannot be cast into or out of the cube: ", so even if the cube is set to allow spells, it blocks those. But the keeps out magic setting clearly blocks it both ways - each step up is just restoring the functionality of the wall of force, and that's how wall of force works. Nothing says you can cast through it, so you can't.